How do I sleep better?
Sleep is nature's gift to mankind for a healthy, happy, and prolonged life. It is your life support system and mother nature's best effort yet at immortality. Unfortunately, nowadays sleep has become an optional lifestyle luxury. It is imperative to understand that sleep is a non-negotiable biological necessity and the decimation of sleep in industrialized nations is having a catastrophic effect on our health. and wellness, even the safety, and education of our children. The sleep loss epidemic is silent and is fast becoming a public health challenge.
As humans, we spend 1/3rd of our lives sleeping if we take 8 hours as the sleeping average of an individual. Sleep is important for various functions of our body. The most important being that sleep helps in learning. It is like the save button on the computer which has to be hit if the file needs to be stored on the memory of the computer. The deeper stages of sleep help in shifting our short-term memories to long term. Growth hormone is secreted during sleep which helps in the growth of bones, muscles, and metabolism of fats. So whatever heavy-duty exercise you do at the gym, will not yield results if you don't supplement it with good sleep. Sleep helps in the reproductive functions of our body and the levels of hormones like testosterone and estrogen have found to be less in individuals who sleep poorly. The optimal functioning of the heart is dependent on sound sleep. The immune system is also dependent on good sleep for its Natural Killer cell activity. Even a 4-hour reduction in sleep leads to a 70% drop in the Natural Killer cell activity. There is a significant relationship between sleep duration and the development of various cancers. So much so, that the World Health Organisation has described Nighttime Shift working as a possible carcinogen. It has been found that individuals who sleep less are more prone to weight gain, premature death due to various causes, take risky rash decisions, and are less empathetic. So my friends it is not a badge of honor to say that I sleep for less time still I get by in my day normally because your body will ultimately pay for this digression from normal.
Sleep is not a monolithic process and sleep happens in various stages, and each and every stage is important for a night of adequate refreshing sleep. Just like we cannot compress pregnancy to 3 months similarly we cannot compress sleep to 3 hours and hope to get all its benefits. Sleep has to go through all its various stages and orchestrate itself to clean out all the gunk from the system. All of us need ceratin hours of sleep ranging from 7-9 hours. And as we get older the quality as well as quantity of sleep decreases. There could be various reasons for it like Acid reflux, prostate enlargement, sleep apnea, chronic pain, and side effects of various medications.
So how do I sleep better?
Embrace sleep as a culture and no badge of honor should be given to people who pull all-nighters
Regularity: Go to bed at the same time every day and get up at the same time. Train your brain like you train a pet dog.
Know your chronotype: Some people are morning larks and some people are night owls. Try to identify your type and find the hours you get your best sleep and the hours you are most productive. Synchronize your working hours and sleeping hours to the best of your capacity.
Relearn how to go to bed: Make sleeping a ritual. Prepare yourself for sleep. Develop a nighttime routine. It includes shutting off your gadgets and television and all kind of stimulating activities. Instead, try to relax 1-2 hours before going to bed. Reading books, listening to music, meditation, light-hearted chatting with family, hot bath can all help you to unwind after a hard day of work
Make your environment sleep-friendly: The bed should be used only for sleeping, not for watching TV, playing games on your mobile, eating, or plotting revenge. Keep the temperature cool. and lights dim. In fact, dimming the lights of the whole house after sunset gives cues to the brain to go into the relaxing and unwinding mode.
Try to have dinner at least. 2-3 hours before going to sleep and try to avoid heavy dinner. Avoid doing any kind of heavy exercises 2-3 hours before sleeping. Going for a leisurely walk is acceptable.
Plan our day: What you do in the day and how you manage your time in the day has a lot of bearing on your nighttime schedule. If your day is well-structured and rewarding and at the end of the day you feel that you have done most of your work satisfactorily, it will be easy to relax at night. What you consume in the day also has a bearing on your nighttime schedule. Loads of coffee, tea, nicotine, alcohol, red bulls, and energy bars will take a toll on your sleep. Try to minimize all of these and especially after 4 pm avoid all kinds of stimulating drinks.
Despite all of these if sleep still is elusive to you, try some techniques to help you sleep.
1) Gently tap yourself on your thighs, alternately would give additive effect
2) Internal body scan and Progressive Muscular Relaxation: Try to visualize each and every part of your body with your eyes closed and with each visualization practice active relaxation of the body part from head to toe.
3) Guided imagery: Try to remember or imagine a relaxing time in your life, it could be a vacation or playing with your children, or chatting with a close friend. Try to remember each and every detail of the memory like you are living it again.
4) Gentle Massage with a light oil can also help a lot of persons to relax and fall asleep.
Friends, if all these fail to help you and still you are spending countless sleepless nights in your bed, don't suffer in silence or take the help of alcohol or over the counter sleeping pills, instead visit your doctor and let him help you with the best possible solution to your sleeping problems. Let us all pledge to prioritize sleep and recognize its importance as the youth elixir of life, till then stay happy and keep doing baat mann se!
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